Let us welcome Christ into the temple of our hearts. By God’s mercy, may he always be the Light that illumines every darkness we may confront.

The feast of the Presentation of the Lord is celebrated each year on February 2. As a feast of the Lord, this year it takes precedence over the regular celebration of the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Presentation has been celebrated since at least the fourth century, as indicated in sermons by a number of early Church Fathers. Observed forty days after the Nativity of the Lord, the feast corresponds to the time required for Mary to complete ritual purification after giving birth. According to Luke’s Gospel, Joseph and Mary brought Jesus from Nazareth to Jerusalem after forty days to comply with the Mosaic law on the redemption of the firstborn son.

The cover image is from a fourteenth-century Armenian gospel book illustrated by T’oros the Deacon. Curiously, the skin of all the figures in the illumination is blue. It is possible that T’oros deliberately imitated far-eastern traditions, where deities are illustrated in blue to indicate their profound spiritual wisdom. The scene depicts the Jerusalem Temple, where the Holy Family meets Simeon and Anna, both of whom have been waiting and hoping to meet the child who, in Simeon’s words, will be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for [God’s] people Israel.” Simeon already holds Jesus in his arms, having received him from the Blessed Mother, while Anna stands behind him, looking to heaven, praising God for the child. On the left, Joseph stands by with a pair of turtledoves for the ritual offering, as six-winged seraphim keep watch over this holy encounter from above.